#maybe I should’ve asked to go to 99 ranch

[miss-floral-thief]

Dad went to go out and said he’d get chicken

[isobel-thorm]

“tell me I’m wrong” for the prompts! Johnnic of course! :)

Again, this was supposed to be crack based on my absolute favorite fuck up I’ve done in this game but then two pages in my brain was all “make this the first 99% serious thing you’ve done for these two” and I was powerless to stop it. 

John/Deputy Nic: How We Operate

In which a bear interrupts John and the Deputy’s final confrontation, and their escape forces them to talk things out with unexpected results. 

The way that we’ve been speaking now I swear That we’d be friends, I swear‘Cos all these little deals go down with little consequences, We share, we shareTurn me inside out and upside down and try to see things my wayTurn a new page, tear the old one out and I’ll try to see things your wayAnd I’m gonna love you anyway“How We Operate” - Gomez

Nicolette cried out as she hit the ground hard. It was just like the Universe to have her slip on the wing of the plane she had stolen from John’s ranch to pursue him after the showdown at the church. The dogfight had been brutal, but then somehow, some way something had gone wrong in John’s plane and he was forced to bail, and she followed. Because nothing added to what was going to be a Hell of a fight like another fucking injury. She rolled to her feet and got up. She tested her footing, and finding it passable, drew her magnum and started walking. She had seen John go down a couple of hundred feet away. By the looks of it, there were a couple of hills separating them. “Right… you can do this…” she hissed to herself.

She started up one hill, and before long, some of the pain thankfully started ebbing away. She continued on, only to stop short at the base of the hill when she heard John’s voice in the distance, no more than a hundred feet away:

“Wha- A BEAR?!”

She scoffed and quickened her pace. “Gotta do better than that, John!” she called as she made her way up the final hill. However, all of her own arrogance immediately faded when she saw the sight to behold.

John had most certainly not been lying, if the grizzly bear charging him had been any indication. He was tearing in her direction, half hobbling from the damage he had taken in the fight.

Some absurd part of the back of her mind risked a closer look at the bear’s neck, wondering if it was Cheeseburger, but no, there was no collar- this one was wild- and apparently very, very angry. And headed straight for them.

“MOVE IT, DEPUTY!” John barked as he passed her.

She didn’t have to be told twice- she just wondered why she had been told. She growled, took a couple of steps backward, pointed the gun at the grizzly’s head and fired-

And the gun just clicked.

She was out of rounds- they were all gone from the church confrontation, and she had been so hyped up on adrenaline that she didn’t even notice. “Fuck!” she tossed the gun at the grizzly as some last ditch effort of distraction. Of course, there was enough distance between her and the bear that it landed before it- and the grizzly merely ran straight over it. “FUCK!” she repeated before she promptly turned on her heel and took off after John. Sure, they seemed to be at a stalemate for this, but there was no way she was going to lose him in the process. When John took a sharp right after one particular clearing, she nearly had to dive to course correct to match him, but when she recognized the Doverspike Compound, she had a vague idea of where he was headed.

There was a crash from behind her followed by an ear-splitting roar, the bear apparently determined to remind them it was close. Too close. She made it into another clearing, and sure enough, John was just ahead, climbing up the ladder into the hunter’s nest. She inhaled sharply before following directly. Again, because nothing says guaranteed death after two different near death experiences like getting in a place that was high up with the guy who was just trying to kill you. She had made it up and two thirds over the landing into the nest. She let out an indignant little squawk when John popped up from deeper into the nest and hauled her the rest of the way up by the back of her shirt.

The fact that the bear proceeded to roar and slam into the ladder was a decent deterrent about the fact that she had landed half on top of him.

There was another creak, and then suddenly, the ladder itself peeled away from the wood and promptly fell away from the edge of the nest and to the ground below.  

Apparently the Universe had a fucked up sense of humor on top of hating her guts.  

She merely flinched when the entire structure shook, the bear still apparently Hell bent on trying to bring the whole thing down. She was grateful that the metal supports were probably sturdier than the ladder. Most likely. Shit.

There was a low roar behind them. Apparently the ladder has missed the bear, too. What was that? Universe 3, Nic 0? No, it was Universe 1000 by now.

With as much effort as she could muster, she kicked weakly at the fold-up chair leaning on the corner of the nest and sent it over the edge to try and hit the bear.

If the angry sound that followed was any indication, it hit its mark but didn’t deter it.

John grunted before doing the same with the other chair nearest him. It made contact and the bear made another distressed noise- but apparently left the immediate area.

She groaned in relief and let her head fall to the side until she realized she had flopped down right into his chest. She went to move again and not give him the satisfaction, but every inch of her body throbbed in protest. The only comfort was that he sounded as hurt and winded as she did. He probably didn’t have the energy to find the satisfaction. “I barely… hit you. How’re you that hurt?” she forced out. Anything to keep this normal, to draw attention away from the fact that this was far too intimate.

“Plane stalled, banked to hard when you tried to herd me… int’… the mountain. And you did manage to get a graze in,” he countered, lifting his shirt to show a bloodied spot along one rib.

“I missed,” she deadpanned.

He grimaced and let out a chuckle that was more wheeze than anything.

She eased off of his chest a little bit, and she was immediately torn about why she had done it in order to help him breathe, considering they had just been trying to kill each other in a dogfight.

The fact that the action brought the Yes sign entirely into view made the whole situation more surreal. Here they were, at the end of the line of their conflict, staring up at the hundred-foot embodiment of what had started their game of cat and mouse. There was no way to imagine that their confrontation would lead to this, though. Even now, the fact that they were laying in comfortable silence was something- granted they both felt half dead, but it was still a little more welcome than it should’ve been. Just thinking about the scenario made her imagination go a bit wild. In that exact moment, it should’ve been some Guardians of the Galaxy bullshit- the pair of them laid out, shoulder to shoulder but trying to land hits on each other, not huddled together, staring up at that fucking sign like it held all the answers. After a moment she realized that was spot on for him- that three letter word had been the answer for everything. Of course he would be seeking the truth from its physical imitation. 

They were silent for a while. For once, she was the one to break it. “Y’know… ya could’ve let the bear get me.”

“Death by bear isn’t the way for Wrath to go. Maybe Gluttony, Sloth. Not Wrath. Not you.”

“Should I be flattered… ‘bout that conclusion?”  

“If you’d like to be,” John countered.

Silence passed again. 

After a while, John laughed bitterly, and she was torn when she realized she was relieved it sounded less strangled- less like his lung had collapsed.

“You don’t even realize how much trouble you were, do you?” he asked.

“ ‘Were’?”

The humor on his face immediately faded. “I failed. You’ll never atone. I failed my most important task. I failed Joseph… I’m done. Eden’s Gates are closed to me.”

“He wouldn’t do that to you. He loves you.” Why the Hell was she reassuring the fucking psychopath who had put her through Hell?

“Does he?” John asked. “You and your people call him a liar. What’s so different between the lines he preaches and the bullshit he leaves on a voicemail?” he gave her a pointed look.

“I only checked it because I thought you’d have messages that gave some leads on outposts or something,” she argued.

“It’s a sin to tell a lie,” John countered.

“… Do you have any other music interests or are you just stuck in the 40s and 50s forever with that?”

“Joseph was a Vera Lynn fan.”

It was finally her turn to laugh. “Of course he is. He’s just that fucking weird. I bet that shit was just wholesome enough for the Voice.”

John’s third answering scoff was answer enough. He waited a while before speaking again. “I never hated you, you know.”

“Oh, quit talking like you’re dying. I grazed you, and it looks like I didn’t even hit your ear back at the church. Knowing you, you’ll survive on spite alone, you big baby,” Nicolette objected.

“Can’t operate on spite if there’s none to be had here anymore.”

She snorted. “Well, you changed your standing on this mess quickly.”

“When it comes to Joseph and the Voice, maybe. Not when it comes to the state of the world. We are on the brink of destruction, Deputy.”

“Oh, please…” she rolled her eyes, then jumped when John lashed out in order to grab her wrist and yank her so they were chest to chest.

John stared at her the same way they had been literally face to face- eyes wide- nearly unblinking, and so hypnotizing she couldn’t look away, and wouldn’t if she tried.

“I’ve seen doubt cloud your eyes. Look at the headlines, look who’s in charge. Don’t lie to me. Don’t tell me you haven’t had those thoughts in your head that we’re headed for destruction.”

“John…” she forced out.

“Tell me I’m wrong,” he cut her off.

She opened her mouth, then shut it. He wasn’t wrong. And that killed her. Sure, who the Hell hadn’t thought about that the last couple of years but filed it away in favor of some other, more optimistic scenario? Even with that considered, Joseph’s theories were a stretch- bliss dreams that felt too real or not.

John sighed at the hesitation. He crept forward and pressed his forehead to hers.

The show of the biggest amount of affection for him and his family froze her in place.

“I need you to understand. I need you to believe,” he insisted.

“I do. Not… entirely, but I get it. The why’s, anyway. The how’s? Not a chance. Killing people, culling the herd, forcing people into your beliefs… that’s not the way to go about trying to remedy it.”

“We had a plan ‘til you came along.”

“It was a shitty plan.”

“What would you have done?” John countered, tone implying he hardly wanted the answer.

“Rescue as many people as possible, no questions asked. No killing, culling, brainwashing, no forcing. Waited for the people who knew what they were doing to do something about it. What normal people would’ve done.”

The sentiment was enough to have him pull back and give her a skeptical look.

“Yeah, yeah. Would’ve ended up ‘your country made a promise but you can’t trust a liar’, right? Still would’ve been some citizens that would’ve done it. There are good people out there. Maybe if you’d stop trying to kill everyone who doesn’t see things your way you’d find them.” She wanted to laugh when John looked lost for a moment- like that had been the very first moment that conclusion had actually occurred to him. Then again, he had known nothing but pain and violence his whole life, no matter how many times he accused her of the same. It was a very real possibility that he hadn’t thought about it. He was just blindly following one of the only people who ever gave a shit about him. He had been going off what a Voice in his brother’s head was claiming. Or maybe it was the fact that she was the most obvious example of her own damned point, even if she technically was part of ‘the country’ when it came down to her job.

His lost look faded after a moment, and he gave her that soul-studying look he had during their first encounter in the bunker- the one that she had nearly sassed him for staring at her tits too long until she got the vibe that he was looking into her, reading her very soul and figuring out just what made her heart tick, how she operated and why. It was even more unsettling the second time around. 

“You really do want to save them as much as we do,” John mused. 

“From you lot or the hypothetical end of the world, yeah.” She squirmed under his gaze after a few seconds, then blinked when he suddenly released her wrist, reached up to close his fist around his bunker key and lifted it off his neck. He slipped it over her head without further hesitation.

She watched him carefully, more so when he kept the key clenched in his fist, hovering over the tattoo he had forced on her hours ago. His eyes flicked to hers for a moment- another perfect mirror of the first soul search- the brief eye contact, laying barely a foot apart from each other- eyes are the windows to the soul, she recalled in that moment. That was exactly what he had thought he was doing back then. And now, that was the moment that stopped time between them.

And then there was the feel of the clasp of the necklace’s leather cord tugging at the back of her neck and the cord itself digging into the sides of her neck, his knuckles brushed her throat and his lips were on hers, hard and insistent but good.

She wanted to think about how far had she fallen in all this that it only took her a moment to welcome it and return it. Then again, she could unpack that particular reaction later. This whole thing had turned out very differently than she had expected it to. Addie was going to have a fit if she heard about this.

The kiss was over quickly and John pulled back to press his forehead against hers again. “Take it. My people are yours, now. A few words from me and they won’t fight you. Take care of them.”

Her heart clenched at that. Fucking sympathy for the Devil, she knew, but the conversation had revealed that the man at least apparently genuinely thought he was helping people, psychotic way of thinking or not. “You’re not out of the game yet, John.”

“Joseph’ll make it clear that I am.”

“Then come with me,” she said, before she had even realized the gravity of the offer. Of course, she did the second she had spoken, and the risks outweighed the positives tenfold. He was still the brother of the enemy. He was still as unstable as they came. He had killed and tortured most of his end of the county.But the Resistance had done damage too, and if they couldn’t find it in them to work around a complication, they were no better than the Peggies. She couldn’t trust him. Not yet. But there was a chance that peace could make things work, and she’d go for it.

John scoffed again. “That’ll work out as well as me getting back into Joseph’s good graces will go.”

“Yeah, well, at least Hell will be a lot more fun than Eden.”

“Your people won’t take kindly to me.”

“No, they won’t. But if you try, maybe they’ll warm up to you if you get your shit together and help us…” she suddenly grew the courage to smirk at him. “Consider it your Atonement.”

John stared at her for a while, and then the pair stopped short when they heard a vehicle approaching.

They exchanged looks and helped each other up with a great deal of difficulty, staying low just in case.

Nicolette saw that it was Addie’s truck headed up the path. “It’s one of my people. She’ll figure something out to get us down,” she reported, and turned to John, even as he tensed. “So, John. What do you say?”

He offered her a matching challenging smile, then glanced over his shoulder at his sign, mocking  and encouraging him all at once. He turned back to her.

“Yes.”